23.04.2013 Views

Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

6.187<br />

As discussed in Section 6.2.1, efforts would be made to avoid siting repositories in<br />

areas having known or potential resource value, reducing the motivation for human intrusion.<br />

Fresh ground water can be a valuable resource in an island environment, however, and the<br />

presence <strong>of</strong> fresh water is intrinsic to the most potential island locations. Metal-bearing<br />

nodules are found--though they are scarce and <strong>of</strong> low grade--in the section <strong>of</strong> the ocean<br />

being considered for subseabed disposal. The resulting order <strong>of</strong> decreasing preference<br />

relative to prospects for inadvertent human intrusion would be space, very deep hole, mined<br />

repository, subseabed and island.<br />

This overall analysis suggests the following order <strong>of</strong> decreasing preference relative<br />

to prospects for satisfactory radiological performance in the post-emplacement period:<br />

space; mined repository; very deep hole; subseabed; island mined repository.<br />

6.2.4.2 Non-Radiological Environmental Effects<br />

Health Effects<br />

Implementation <strong>of</strong> any <strong>of</strong> the concepts would involve high-risk construction and opera-<br />

tion activities including mining operations at sea and operations in space. Industrial<br />

accidents will undoubtedly occur; however, insufficient evidence currently exists to estab-<br />

lish significant differences between options.<br />

Injuries to the public could result from transportation accidents, and based on the<br />

number <strong>of</strong> transportation links inherent in each concept to which the public would be exposed<br />

(see Section 6.2.4.1), the order <strong>of</strong> decreasing preference would be the mined repository/<br />

very deep hole, island, and subseabed/space concepts. The mined repository and very deep<br />

hole concepts are essentially equivalent in this regard, as are the island and subseabed<br />

concepts.<br />

Socioeconomic Effects<br />

A comparative analysis <strong>of</strong> socioeconomic effects <strong>of</strong> generic disposal options is difficult<br />

because <strong>of</strong> the site specific nature <strong>of</strong> those effects. While one can assess factors<br />

such as size and number <strong>of</strong> facilities, the types <strong>of</strong> location and the size, timing and sta-<br />

bility <strong>of</strong> the associated work force as discriminators among technology options, this is only<br />

half <strong>of</strong> the necessary information to assess impact. The other half consists <strong>of</strong> those fac-<br />

tors associated with the area's ability to absorb the impacts. For example in times <strong>of</strong> high<br />

employment (no labor surplus) and high housing occupancy rates (no available housing) a<br />

project which requires high levels <strong>of</strong> manpower will create a serious (negative) impact. At<br />

a time when unemployment is high and housing is available, the same project would be <strong>of</strong> a<br />

positive impact.<br />

Since these technologies involve different types <strong>of</strong> location and transportation steps,<br />

comparison against a "generic" location is not really possible. The addition <strong>of</strong> effects<br />

across several locations is not clearly a meaningful exercise since the impacts do not sum-<br />

mate for any given community or person.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!